“YEGO cab” – a New ‘Low Cost’ Taxi- Service Launched in Kigali

Yego Innovations Limited – a local tech company has introduced a new taxi service named “YEGO cab” where cab services will be only offered by calling a toll-free number and get instant services at affordable prices.

According to the new technology, customers will just need to call 9191 and a taxi cab will be at their door step with just 5 minutes.

Previously taxi-cab services have been manually offered – where customers would complain of high charges levied on them by cab drivers.

With this service, which was launched yesterday, September 27, cab drivers will use Intelligent Connected Fare Meters (ICFM) which is installed in a taxi cab to calculate the cost of a cab ride.

Once a customer gets into a cab, Rwf1, 500 ($1.7) will automatically be entered into the system for the initial one kilometer, while Rwf500 will be added for every other kilometer afterwards.

According to officials at Yego Innovation Limited, the new electronic meter will be fully controlled online by transport regulatory bodies including; Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (RURA), Yego Innovation Limited and Rwanda National Police (RNP) in terms of price fixation and monitoring.

About 665 Taxi Owners, 850 Taxi Drivers and 727 Taxi Cabs have been registered by all authorities.

Karanvir Singh, the Chief Executive Officer of Yego Innovation Limited said that “our system comes for safety and easy transport in the city.”

Meanwhile, passengers won’t be required to have internet bundles, any application, Internet or airtime to call while seeking Yego taxi-cab services.

They will only be required to call ‘9191 and speak to an agent in either of the three languages; Kinyarwanda, English, or French.

Eng. Emmanuel Asaba – Head of Public Transport Department at Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (RURA) told media that the regulator electronically installed pricing system in the cabs and this an innovation which will help in solving price challenges faced by passengers.

“It is expected that the new ICFM technology will increase the number of trips by 30%, reduce waiting time and ease access to service for the passenger,” Asaba said.

Correspondingly, Muhoza told KT Press that installation of meters on motorcycles is still underway until the end of this year. “The registration and meter installation will be history by end of December,”Muhoza said.

Yego Innovation Ltd has invested $6.5 million for both YegoMoto and Yego cabs since 2016.